Downtown Eastside Arts
Arts take over Downtown Eastside: Heart of the City Festival shows off community culture and character
To many people the Downtown Eastside is an intimidating place: a dangerous, dirty, drug-infested ‘hood patrolled by pimps, pushers, prostitutes and police. But there are also poets, painters and patrons of the arts in the mix. And spend some time chatting with residents in the area’s animated streets and you’ll discover a tenacious camaraderie unmatched [...]
Heart of City Festival shines light on home and native land: Downtown Eastside festival features carvers, films, workshops, music
The seventh annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival continues to celebrate the artists and activists of the neighbourhood with 12 days of performances, films, forums, workshops, visual art and historic walks and talks. This year’s festival focuses more than ever on First Nations artists and will animate sidewalks and parks with music and [...]
Vancouver: Shadow machine more than dance, Multimedia: ‘Full sensory experience’ honours city’s past, present
Our urban environment is shaped by its industrial development and the people who worked through it. The landscapes we inhabit and the ebb and flow of development are determined by this ongoing relationship. So how do we define those concepts in the postindustrial age? This is partially the premise of Shadow Machine. A new interdisciplinary [...]
Vancouver: Portrait of the artist as mean-streets hustler
On a mild evening in early September, Ken Foster – his black sweatshirt’s hood framing a gaunt face partly concealed behind a scraggly beard – hovers on the periphery of a Vancouver pub’s patio clutching a medium-sized painting. The piece is a mix of spray-paint and charcoal pencil, the scrawny artist explains to a backpacker [...]
B.C. art attack: W2′s Irwin Oostindie
Irwin Oostindie is Executive Director of W2, a community media and arts space in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Q. W2 is one of the newest arts organizations in the city. It was one of the real hubs of activity during the 2010 Olympics. How has W2 been impacted by the cuts to arts? How do you [...]
Goldcorp donates $10 million to SFU downtown arts centre
Simon Fraser University will name its new arts complex after Goldcorp Inc., after the gold producer donated $10 million to its downtown Vancouver campus at Hastings and Richards streets. “This gift will ensure that our contemporary arts program is not just located in the Downtown Eastside,” said SFU president Andrew Petter, “but also is a [...]
Calling all music connoisseurs: SFU Contemporary Arts Open House at Woodward’s
COME TOGETHER is the theme for the celebration of the opening of SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward’s. That’s because we are inviting all music connoisseurs to come together with theatre lovers, dance enthusiasts, film buffs and arts aficionados for a weekend of short performances that will provide just a glimpse of what Simon Fraser University [...]
Vancouver: SFU arts centre gets $4m boost
North Vancouver businessman and philanthropist Djavad Mowafaghian has donated $4 million to Simon Fraser University’s new contemporary arts campus at the former Woodward’s site in the Downtown Estside. When the campus opens next month it will have the 350-seat Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema and the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre. Mowafaghian made his fortune as a [...]
Downtown Eastside mural ‘touches a little bit on everybody’, Painting is the largest public mural in Western Canada
The largest public mural in Western Canada depicts ravens, canoes, dancers and even a heartbreaking scene of children being sent off to residential schools. The 7,600-square-foot scene on the wall of a Downtown Eastside hotel celebrates native culture and its history, but it’s also aimed at bringing together natives and non-natives. “It touches a little [...]
Vancouver: Documentary Filmmakers Turn to Community to Complete the Story
Vancouver-based documentary filmmakers are harnessing the power of the crowd to engage people and communities in completing With Glowing Hearts; a film about how social media enables people to create positive social change. -wghthemovie.ca The film’s four interwoven storylines document the challenges and triumphs of people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the lead up and [...]
Vancouver: Powell Street Festival comes home, Podcast play shows personal view of historic park
You would think someone who’s a former writer for CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the corporation’s first person of colour to host a daily national radio program, a standup comedian and actor would be able to put together a 10-minute podcast in his sleep. But Tetsuro Shigematsu says he struggled for months with how [...]
Vancouver: Aboriginal artists painting what may be Vancouver’s largest mural
Urban aboriginal artists in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are creating what may be the city’s largest mural. The giant 743-square-metre mural is a labour of love for five Aboriginal artists who have been working for a month on the west wall of the Orwell Hotel on Hastings street. The colourful mural is a mix of Aboriginal [...]
W2′s Creative Technology Youth Summer Camps
W2 Community Media Arts Society is a Vancouver cultural institution dedicated to providing individuals and communities with access to technology, learning, production and distribution. W2 also operates creative spaces in Vancouver’s inner-city. Creative Tech Summer Camps are a fun way for young people to participate in art making, learning new skills, creating the future, and [...]
Skyscrapers and Streetscapes: Why Art Funding Murder Kills More Than Just the Artist
There are many ways to help the less fortunate. Clothing drives, canned food, a friendly smile, or just a simple conversation when there’s something to talk about. Personally, I don’t have much to give away — but I can hold a conversation, and I can write stories. I play to my strengths. Sharon Kallis is [...]
Vancouver: Illuminares moves to Gastown
One of Vancouver’s most popular summer traditions, Illuminares, will take place in and around W2 Storeyum in Gastown for the first time this year. Public Dreams, producers of the magical event, is collaborating with W2 Storyeum and the surrounding Downtown Eastside community to present the event Saturday July 24, from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. [...]
